Currently, mobile devices provide a plethora of functionality and are constantly in communication with the Internet. Additionally, a number of communications functions, including radios, baseband processors, and general purpose processors are being combined onto a single chip. It is desirable to create chips that include multiple functions, where only some functions are enabled, and to enable certain functions remotely via a communications network. Thus, it is inexpensive to produce and sell silicon devices with unused capacity, and providing excess capacity can be economically advantageous when the cost of production of a silicon chip is based on the number of units made. Stated another way, the cost of a single additional processor core or a single additional radio on a chip is low, and it makes sense in some cases to design a more complex chip and activate only a subset of the functionality on the chip. However, it is at present difficult to obtain payment for only the subset of functionality that a user is using at any given time.
Additionally, much of today's wired and wireless network infrastructure is heavily utilized during peak times, but is underutilized at other times. This underutilization is analogous to empty seats on an airplane, which would ideally be filled to provide a greater return to the network operator. Overutilization (overbooked seats) on one network resource (a first airplane) would ideally be able to be shifted to another underutilized network resource (passengers being rebooked on a second airplane).